“Yes.” Of course the answer was yes. I’m not sure what else I expected it to be. I start rubbing my eyes with my palms, and my heart is beating so fast that I can barely feel it. Elius notices this from me and starts panicking a little.
“Oh, uh, well, m-maybe you’re not stuck here forever! The town wizard knows way more than I do! Maybe he knows some way for you to get back home!”
I stare down at Elius, feeling a tiny bit relieved.
“Okay… Please take me to him.”
“Yes sir!”
Elius says this and starts walking away down the paved dirt road. I follow behind him, looking around the town. I hear more murmuring from the townspeople, but I ignore it, and attempt to make conversation with Elius.
“So what’s that storm over in the distance?”
“We sent out a scout earlier to check it out, he returned a bit ago. It’s apparently the power of one of the other heroes!”
“Other heroes? I’m not the only one?”
“Of course not! Each village was commanded to summon a hero, and each one that’s been summoned so far has had a different ability! What’s yours, by the way?”
“Don’t worry about that right now, it’s complicated. So how many villages are there? And how many have successfully summoned a hero?”
“There are 99, including the capital, and any villages with at least 100 human inhabitants. And last time I heard the count it was somewhere around 72? So you are probably number seventy something!”
“70?! I thought I was one of six or something… Well, it’s whatever, at least I’m not alone. Why were we summoned?”
Elius stayed quiet for a few seconds, seemingly thinking very hard.
“You’ll have to ask my teacher that! I sort of know, but he definitely knows far more than I do.”
“Who is he anyway? You mentioned he was the ‘town wizard?’ Does each village have one, is that it?”
“Precisely, he’s the only one we have! I’m in training to replace him once he passes away.”
“I see. And what’s the name of this village?”
“Oh, it’s-”
Elius gets interrupted by a loud bolt of thunder that streaked across the sky and shook the ground. I move back, trying to stabilize myself.
“Was that from the hero?!”
“I think it was… Seems he’s much more powerful than me or my teacher thought, if he can even shake the ground that’s over here as a byproduct of an attack.”
“Do you guys have anyone to deal with this?! This seems like it would really be an issue!”
“He’s most likely just fighting a powerful monster! He wouldn’t be the cause of a problem, all the heroes that are summoned are supposed to be heroes!”
I pause for a second, having to walk a little faster to catch back up to Elius, who was already walking again. They’re supposed to be heroes? What if they don’t want to be? Do I even want to be one?
“What if they decide to abuse their power for their own personal gain?”
“Well, there wouldn’t exactly be a lot of people to stop them… All we’ve got is one team of exceptional defenders per village, and the heroes of course! If the hero in control of that storm really did start being evil, I’m sure there’s another trying to stop them!”
“And if there isn’t?”
“Then I would ask you! Your ability is pretty powerful, right? I’ve heard that the majority of them are!”
“It… can be, if I’m lucky.”
“Can I see it?!”
Gah. This skill is too much of a risk to use all the time, unless I have no other choice, of course. I’d prefer not to let this kid down though, he does seem really excited. I weigh the pros and cons for a few seconds before responding.
“Okay, I’ll show it to you. But just one time! It could end up being really dangerous.”
I snap my fingers with my non-gloved hand, and watch as the table appears in front of me, a dice rolling on top of it. My eyes widen as I realize something.
“Step back!! 10 steps back, at least!”
Elius listens to me and steps backwards quickly, his eyes still locked onto the table that had materialized. The only objects or people in the radius now should just be me and everything on me. I look forward and see a familiar message as I brace myself.
-----
Rolling Infinity Dice
. . .
Rolled!
-----
I cringe slightly as I read the text. I just now realize how much I dislike how the text on these screens look.
“W-what happened?”
“My ability creates something entirely random, or affects something with a random effect.”
“So what did it do this time?”
“I’m not sure yet… Try to be careful, just in case.”
I quickly think about every item on me, opening a screen for each of them. I grab and slide them around my vision, attempting to locate the one that has changed. But from what I can tell, none of them have any new effects. Did I summon a penny or something, what’s going on?
“Umm, sir, I think I figured out what happened.”
“Really? What is it?”
“I don’t remember your hair being purple before!”
“Purple..?”
I grab at my hair but feel nothing different. I frantically open my profile menu again and stare at the illustration of myself. It’s as Elius said, my hair is now a purple color, one that’s very similar to the screens. I read over the screen again, searching for some sort of explanation.
-----
[Profile]
Name: Louis Silva
Species: Human (Earth)
Age: 21
Level: 2
Class: None
Unique Skill: Dice (Lvl 1)
Notable Passive Effects: Dormant Color (Hair)
-----
I sigh loudly and tap on the new “passive effect,” which opens a small description for it on another screen.
-----
[Effect Information]
Name: Dormant Color
Type: Hair
* If applied to a sentient being, it will change their (hair) to a color that has been prominent in their mind before the effect was applied.
* If applied to a non-sentient object, it will change the color of its top-most area to a completely random one.
-----
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Welp. I guess this is my hair now. I notice Elius staring at me with a confused look on his face, so I close my screens and look back over at him.
“What is it? Why are you looking at me like that? Does the hair look bad?”
“No, that’s not it, it looks good! But why were you moving your hands around so much? And looking intently at nothing?”
“What do you mean? Can you not-“
It suddenly hits me. He probably can’t see any of my screens. Although he did seem able to see the table, maybe because it had to be a physical surface for my skill to work?
“Never mind, don’t worry about it. It’s a hero thing.”
“Really? What does it do?”
“It’s incredibly complicated. I might tell you later if I have more time.”
“Okay! So is your ‘random’ ability something holy?”
“Holy?”
“Holy, light-powered, cleansing, however you want to call it. I'm asking because, you know, your outfit is glowing bright white?”
“Oh, that. Toggle glow.”
As I say this, my sweater stops glowing. I suddenly feel very lackluster and unimpressive, and Elius’s blank expression only adds to that feeling.
“So all your ability does is make things look different?”
“No no no, it can do a lot more! See this glove?”
I nervously stretch out my hand and show him my fist of shadows.
“Isn’t it cool?”
“Is it just a glove? What does it do?”
“Well, I can punch things that aren’t there!”
“So it can hit ghosts??”
“Sort of. It actually summons ghosts for me to fight, but they can’t hurt me and only I can hit them.”
“So it basically does nothing?”
“Uh, well, I mean-“
Elius rolls his eyes and starts walking again. He definitely had a very high idea of what I was capable of, and it just crashed down to the ground. My shoulders slump backwards and I awkwardly follow behind me, staying silent until we reach our destination. In front of us is a house-sized and cathedral-like building, made mostly of stone.
“This is it, eh? Is it just for the wizard, or is it more than that?”
“It’s mostly just for him, his projects, and all the village records. The wizard of each town pretty much has the role of leader, or serves as the leader’s advisor, if not. Here, he’s the leader, or mayor, if you will. Now come in.”
Elius opens the wooden door with some sort of spell. I try to peer at what he’s doing, but he moves closer to the door and covers his hands with his robe to ensure I can’t see anything. I sigh again. It’s not exactly my fault that I’m not that impressive, but I don’t think Elius really cares either way. Eventually I hear a click, and the door swings open. Elius steps inside, and I follow him. On the inside, it looks exactly as I expected it to. Stone walls and a stone floor, giving the whole building a bit of a dull feel to it. However, the rugs on the floor and paintings on the walls do a lot to give the place a touch of character. Various tables and desks sit against the walls, artifacts, papers, and various desk tools stacked on top of them. There’s a disturbing lack of chairs. Elius leads me to a room at the back of the main room and knocks on the door.
“Master! I’ve returned. And I’ve brought a summoned hero with me! Although, be aware, he is a bit… lackluster.”
I attempt to ignore the destruction of my self-confidence as the door swings open. A man stands there, wearing a similar dark blue robe to Elius, but with far more patterns on it. I expected him to have a long white beard, but instead of one, he has long black hair and a black goatee. He still appears to be old, however, so how is hair still black? I think of my own hair, which is now purple, and the wizard’s black hair no longer surprises me. He glares at me, and starts looking me up and down. He then turns to Elius and speaks.
“That’s the hero outfit, that’s for sure.”
His voice isn’t the old and slow one I expected, but instead a quick and crackly one. I really need to get the wizard stereotype out of my head. He turns back to look at me.
“Are you sure you didn’t steal those clothes from somewhere?”
OF COURSE I DIDN’T. Do I really look that weak? Wait a second, don’t I have around 30 strength?
“I didn’t steal anything, old man.”
I turn to the side and punch the stone wall with my left and ungloved hand. Sure enough, there’s a large dent in it. However, caught up in all the hype about my high strength, I forget just how low my vitality is.
“AGH!”
I fall to the floor on my knees, shaking my fist rapidly.
“OW! MAN, THAT HURT-”
I quickly shut up as I turn and see Elius and the wizard staring at me, their eyes filled with shock. I notice Elius seemingly trying to hold in a laugh and my body burns with rage. It also burns with pain, though, so I focus on that and try to lower the pain as much as I can by blowing on it. The wizard crouches down to my level and puts his hand on my own. A green light glows from his hand and envelops my left hand. It feels like both a liquid and a gas as it passes over my hand. Once it retracts, my hand looks just fine and doesn’t hurt anymore.
“That was… impressive? Yeah, let’s go with that.”
He helps me back up to my feet by grabbing my left hand, shaking it as he does so. I awkwardly shake his hand. Why does he even shake with his left? Or maybe he was just improvising?? If so, that was really smooth, I respect him for that one. I see Elius giggling in the corner of my vision and I shake the wizard’s hand with a bit more ferocity.
“What’s your name, son?”
I attempt to think of a cool response. I finally think of one. I smirk and cross my arms.
“I never introduce myself first.”
“Interesting. Well, I never introduce myself. I go by “the wizard,” and nobody knows my real name. Sorry, but it looks like you’ll have to go first this time.”
What? Are you kidding me?! Can I not just get a single cool moment to show that I have any potential at all?! I’m tempted to roll again just to have the chance of something cool happening, but I move past the thought and ask what’s been on my mind for a while.
“So, ‘the wizard,’ why exactly were the heroes summoned to Ninarel?”
“It’s Nineril, not ‘Ninarel.’ C’mon, you have to work on your pronunciation or people are gonna get really upset at you. Also, before I answer, you have yet to tell me your name.”
“It’s Louis Silva. There, I said it. Wow, isn’t that crazy?”
I roll my eyes as I say this. The wizard and Elius seem unfazed.
“It’s a nice-sounding name. Your parents chose it well.”
What? Who even says stuff like that? I can hardly put up with these two anymore, so I push forward my question in an attempt to get a quick answer so I can just leave already.
“Thanks. Anyway, why were the heroes summoned here?”
“Oh yes, of course. I’ll start from the beginning of the tale. Have a seat, this might take a while.”
I stare at him with a blank expression as he says it’ll take ‘a while.’ I sigh and look around for a chair. Oh yeah, that’s right, there apparently aren’t any in this entire building. I cross my arms and just stand there staring at the wizard, waiting for him to begin already. Elius leans back against the wall, and crosses his arms, intentionally trying to look cooler than me. I assume that he’s failing at it, and I turn towards the wizard.
“The land of Nineril used to be in perfect peace. Villages were being formed everywhere, and warriors were being trained. The monsters that existed were a bit annoying at times, but never really a match for even just an average hero. The only ones that were troublesome were the ones underground although it was extremely rare that any ever found their way to the surface. Nineril was almost a perfect paradise, with peace throughout all the land. Until one day…”
Those are the three words I was expecting to hear, but I’m more interested in what comes after them.
“…Boats.”
“Sorry. What?”
“Boats. They fell from the sky one day, with no explanation at all. They crashed onto the ground, hitting the exact spots that happened to crack open various fissures in the ground. Out of the fissures came monsters, stronger than ever before. Out of the boats came warriors, stronger than any humans any of us had ever faced. The boats and fissures were off in the wilderness, but that didn’t stop some groups from migrating into the more populated areas. They ravaged through them, mercilessly killing anyone and anything in their way. The new humans far overpowered our own warriors, even our most powerful ones. As of now, they have their territories nestled in areas between some villages, and on the borders of others. The humans started forming their own villages in these areas, while the monsters began to dig into the ground in their areas, probably in an attempt to make more fissures. Other than removing an incredible amount of people from the world, the violent rampages also sent the remaining villages into panic. Over time, however, the wizards of each village came together and discovered world crystals. After experimenting on them and studying ancient texts, we eventually discovered that they could be used to summon beings of great strength from another world. Due to the lack of any other real options, the wizards orchestrated a plan to get as many individuals from another world as possible. Gathering all of the world dust that we had, we handed out the necessary amount to summon to each village, and ordered each wizard to summon a hero to represent and protect that village. So far, a lot have arrived, but around 20 or so have yet to appear. Our only hope for freedom from the new humans and monsters is that one of the heroes we summon is good-natured enough to be willing to discover a possible cause and end them one and for all. If they’re not good-natured, they’re praised as gods in an attempt to at least make them stay and defend their village.”
This was it. My Main Quest, “Save the World.” That was it. Surely it couldn’t be that hard. Maybe I can just let the other heroes worry about it, considering their skills are bound to be far better than mine.
“I see! I have one more question though. Is there any way for me to return back to my own world?”
“...Through saving the world, the path home will be opened. That is all I can tell you.”
“So you’re saying it’s possible?”
“Pretty much.”
I feel a huge weight fall off of my shoulders. I’m not stuck here forever. Even if I have to put all my effort into saving the world, there’s still a chance. Even just a sliver of hope is all I need right now.
“Great! Well, thanks for the information! Got any weapons or treasures to help me on my way?”
“Nope.”
“Thanks.”
I sigh and begin walking out of the building. Some home village this is! Why do I feel like other heroes probably got treated better than I did? Is it because they actually have a good skill? I don’t think mine is that bad, I’ve probably just been unlucky so far. As I’m expecting, neither Elius nor the wizard follow me out. Am I really that uninteresting? Isn’t my skill at least somewhat cool?? I look around and see various townspeople glancing at me, surely wondering where I’m going. Ironic, considering I’m not even sure where I’m headed. I turn to look at the giant storm thundering in the sky and a bad idea comes to my mind. That’s it. I’m going to prove myself. I’m going to go and assist with whatever problem is happening over there, and utilize my skill the best I can. The storm thunders loudly and I flinch and jump back. I’ll have to get lucky.